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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Among the many unexplored fields in the history of the Outer Empire, the British settlements on the West African coast, until the last twenty years of the eighteenth century, have been the most neglected. The main course of English relations with that coast from earliest times to the end of the nineteenth century has been told in an admirable survey by Sir Charles Lucas, and several histories of the Gold Coast exist. None of these sources, however, have provided more than an outline sketch of the English settlements in West Africa, and the method of government and organisation by which they were maintained in the eighteenth century has not been examined. The most recent history of the Gold Coast, published in 1910 by Mr. Walton Claridge, is mainly occupied with nineteenth-century history, and no attempt is made by him to give anything but a cursory description of government in the previous century. Many other surveys of European progress in Africa have been written, but in all of them the treatment of the eighteenth century is slight. It is easy to account for this neglect. The story of the coast is bound up with the most discreditable of undertakings that mark the expansion of the Empire—the negro slave [trade—and Lecky's brief account of the English relations with West Africa would not encourage research into a subject so humiliating to national pride.
page 167 note 1 Lucas: West Africa.
page 167 note 2 Claridge: History of the Gold Coast.
page 168 note 1 Lecky, : England in the Eighteenth Century, II, p. 245Google Scholar.
page 169 note 1 i. Papers presented to the Commons by the Board of Trade, 1749, passim; ii. Minute Book, Board of Trade, 1749, CO. 391/57, passim; Entry Book, Board of Trade, 1749, CO. 399/30, passim.
page 169 note 2 Geo. II, c. 40. Schedule I. From West to East these forts were: Dixecove, Succondee, Commenda, Cape Coast Castle, Tantumquerry, Winnebah, Accra, Whydah. Two were added to the list after 1750: Annanaboe, which was rebuilt 1753; Appolonia, which was built 1766.
page 170 note 1 The arrangement of Dutch and English forts was, in 1760, as follows West to East, E., D., D., D., E., D., D., and E., D., E., D., D. (Elmina). E. (Cape Coast Castle), D., E., D., E., D., E., D., E., and D., E. (Bennet, : Africa According to the Sieur d'Anville, 1760.Google Scholar)
page 171 note 1 Treatise on Trade to Africa: An African Merchant, 1772.
page 171 note 2 23 Geo. II, c. 31.
page 172 note 1 23 Geo. II, c. 31, sec. iv.
page 172 note 2 C.J. vols. XXV. seq.
page 173 note 1 C.J., XXVIII, 1758, Feb. 8.
page 173 note 2 Parl. Hist., XVII, p. 503.
page 173 note 3 Ibid., XIX, pp. 298 seq.
page 173 note 4 Ibid., Mr. Temple Luttrell, p. 303.
page 173 note 5 Ibid., Burke, pp. 313 and 315.
page 174 note 1 23 Geo. II, c. 31, sec. xxi. and xxiii.
page 174 note 2 Minutes, Board of Trade, 1752, Feb. 14 (CO. 391/59).
page 174 note 3 Minutes, Board of Trade, 1758, April 21 (CO. 391/65).
page 175 note 1 Board of Trade to Halifax, 1771, May 22 (CO. 391/78).
page 175 note 2 S.P.F. Holland, 538. Suffolk to Yorke, 1773, Feb. 9.
page 175 note 3 Committee to Board of Trade, 1774, Jan. 12 (T70/69).
page 176 note 1 23 Geo. II, c. 35, sec. xxx.
page 176 note 2 Germaine to Mackenzie, 1781, May 30 (CO. 268/3). Admiralty Secret Letters, 1781, May 2, to Capt. Shirley (Ad. 2/1340).
page 176 note 3 Annual Register, 1782, and Governor to Committee, 1782, June 6 (T70/33).
page 176 note 4 Yorke to Holdernesse, 1762, June 17 (CO. 388/50).
page 177 note 1 African Company's Papers, Melvil to Committee, 1752, Oct. 30 (T70/29).
page 177 note 2 Certificate of Payment from Capt. Thompson, 1786, Jan. 16 (CO.267/9).
page 178 note 1 23 Geo. II, c. 31, sec. v.
page 178 note 2 Report on African Forts, 1816, Jan. 26.
page 179 note 1 Instructions to Melvil (T70/143). Minutes of the Committee, 1751, Apr. 17.
page 180 note 1 Balance Sheets of the Committee, 1780 (T70/906).
page 180 note 2 23 Geo. II, c. 31, sec. xxiv., amended by 4 Geo. Ill, c, 20, sec. ii.
page 180 note 3 Invoices: 1757–68, passim (T70/927).
page 181 note 1 Miles to Bourke, 1773, Jan. 31 (T70/1402).
page 181 note 2 Committee to Governor, 1774, Dec. 5 (T70/69).
page 181 note 3 Miles to Shoolbred, 1775, Aug. 18 (T70/1482).
page 181 note 4 Miles to Bourke, 1779, Sept. 15 (T70/1483).
page 182 note 1 Committee to Governor, 1774, Dec. 8 (T70/69).
page 182 note 2 23 Geo. II, c. 31, clause xi.
page 183 note 1 The Secretaries were: William Hollier, 1750–1753; Samuel Poirier, 1754–1770; Richard Camplin, 1771–1777; T. Rutherfoord, 1778–1787.
page 183 note 2 Committee to Council, 1782, Jan. 26 (T70/69).
page 184 note 1 Bosman, Description of the Coasts of Guinea, Letter I.
page 184 note 2 Bennet, : Africa According to the Sieur d'Anville, 1760Google Scholar.
page 184 note 3 Migeod, : Journal of the African Society, Jan., 1920Google Scholar.
page 184 note 4 Abstract of C.C.C. Day-Books, 1752 (T70/1008).
page 184 note 5 Minutes of Council, 1781, Oct. 20 (T70/152).
page 185 note 1 Committee to Governor, 1774, Dec. 5 (T70/69).
page 185 note 2 Minutes, Board of Trade, 1768, April 26 (CO. 391/75).
page 185 note 3 Letter of Govr. Roberts, 1780, Sept. 21 (T70/1478).
page 186 note 1 Committee to Governor, 1781, Jan. 20 (T70/69).
page 186 note 2 Governor to Committee, 1786, Jan. 8 (Governor of Tantumquerry), ibid., 1782, 28th Sept. (Capt. Mackenzie).
page 186 note 3 Committee to Knox, 1778, Sept. 23 (T70/69).
page 186 note 4 Roberts to Bartlett, 1780, June 5 (T70/1478).
page 187 note 1 Miles to Bourke, 1773, Jan. 31 (T70/1482).
page 188 note 1 Letter Book, Governor Miles, 1781 (T70/1483).
page 188 note 2 Board of Trade Minutes, 1752, 14th Feb. (CO. 391/59).
page 188 note 3 Part. Hist., XIX, pp. 298 seq.
page 190 note 1 Report of Dep. Keeper of Public Recorās, VII, App. II, p. 21.
page 190 note 2 Ibid., VIII, App. I, p. 27.
page 190 note 3 Transactions R. Hist. Soc, Ser. Ill, vol. vi.
page 190 note 4 Attached to D.Lit. Thesis, 1914.
page 190 note 6 Miss Hotblack refers to them in Chatham's Colonial Policy.
page 194 note 1 Reg. P.C., 1783, July 18 and Aug. 15.
page 207 note 1 Major Rennel, editor of Geographical Notes, attached to 1799 edition of Mungo Park's Travels, says: “We must regard the geography of Monsieur d'Anville as the most perfect of all, previous to the enquiries made by the African Association.”
